Ello! Ello! My name is Molly Frizelle and I am in my second year of graduate school. I graduated from The College of Charleston in 2015 with my BA in English and a minor in Communication. English was not my first course of study. I was in Nursing school for two years, deep in my clinical studies, when I realized how unhappy I was. I took three months off from school, reconnected with my love of Literature, enrolled at The College of Charleston and began my studies in British Literature.
It was at The College and through the amazing guidance of two of my English professors that I discovered my love affair with the classroom. I have always enjoyed the discussions and dynamics of a classroom but never really explored it as a career. My "super" senior year of college, I decided I would go to graduate school to become a teacher. People joke and ask if I will ever get out of school, but I am so excited to get into my own classroom and cannot wait to student teach in Fall 2017. (Pictured to the left are my wee nephew Jack and I; he's the man.)
Currently, I work in The Citadel Graduate College as an Admissions and Records Administrator and the Miller Analogies Test Proctor. I have been working in The Grad College for a year now. I have had an amazing experience thus far in my position. I work with extremely intelligent and genuinely thoughtful people. As a future educator, I am fortunate enough to see the "behind the scenes" aspects of higher education from my position.
I was nominated to be on the Public Education Board this year for the Zucker Family School of Education as the representative for Graduate students. I am extremely excited to see how the delegation and meetings of higher education are conducted.
When I am not working in The Graduate College, I dog-sit regularly and have been a nanny for three different families when needed for five years (pictured to the right is my dog, Louie).
Goals for English 564:
I'm too old for this....
So, I know that as a "millennial" (I loath that I am considered one), I should be more computer savvy than I really am. I am not afraid to say that I am mildly computer illiterate. There are so many different programs and interfaces out there that I am a bit intimidated by them all. When it comes to technologies, I do better with the hands-on approach to learning. Through this course, I am hoping to become more comfortable with the programs that I will encounter in the classroom and even possibly be introduced to some that I have never heard of to make myself as proficient as possible. I have thought myself to repel technology, so I think this class will be interesting, for sure.
The technology that I use regularly is Google Drive. I use it for so much. I save everything to it. Papers, pictures, charts, and anything else that I can think of. It has been the most user-friendly interface that I have encountered. I know I will never be a computer programmer, I am pretty sure it is too late to emerge as a prodigy of some kind, (I will make peace with this and move on,) but I would like to hone any skill that will make English and American Literature more exciting.
Pride and Prejudice Prezi
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (12th Grade)
Jane Austen was well known for her criticism towards marriage in her society. Given Austen's main focus was on the aristocrat along with the middle class, she omitted those within the lower working class—for the purpose of this assignment, and following the characters' stories, so will we. Austen uses well developed banter and wit to address and bring to the forefront some of the most socially confining issues of a female’s life: love, reputation and marriage. Does love really matter? How can a woman really get the trifecta? This purpose of this lesson is to help students develop and hone critical and analytical reading skills along with engaging them with the literary criticism on Austen's work (focusing on the themes of love and marriage in her society).
Austen heavily disagreed with how her era confined women to their husbands and to their houses. She published her works anonymously for many reasons but one was because writing was not considered to a favorable feminine characteristic, especially one for marriage. For this assignment, we will look at how women are valued along with how their worth is measured in Jane Austen’s _Pride and Prejudice_ to Seth Grahame-Smith’s adaptation _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies._
Eligible Bachelors
Eligible Bachelorettes
Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy Mr. Charles Bingley Mr. George Wickham Mr. Collins (clergyman)
Miss Elizabeth Bennet Miss Jane Bennet Miss Lydia Bennet Miss Bingley Miss Charlotte Lucas Miss Georgiana Dracy Miss Mary Bennet Miss Catherine Bennet
When thinking of this project, I wanted to do something that may spark interest in further Shakespearean or classic pieces of literature. There are numerous movies that are based off classic pieces of literature, and often the modern movie may make the older story more relatable to today's students.
To start class and this project, I will ask my students “How many movies do they know of that are based on of William Shakespeare’s plays? After this bell-ringer, hopefully they will have listed some of the movies that I had on my list, filling in the ones that were not named but ones that I want them to know. I would then pass out a sheet that has summaries for students to reference while they brainstorm and storyboard their videos. The students are to choose one of the movies listed to look deeper into the imagery displayed on the screen, find similarities in the imagery from the text, and identify any major images/themes that may have been overlooked by students in their projects.
*Please pay close attention to literary devices used in the text that would be VISUALLY displayed not VERBALLY. *Videos are to be 3-5 minutes long Students are to use iMovie, Animoto, WeMovie, or Lego Movie Maker. *Movies will then be posted to the class Wiki.
Week 1: Class time will be used to brainstorm images, themes, and overall thoughts or concerns students have for the project. They will start to storyboard their movies Week 2: Thoughtful and well developed storyboard and organized outlines are to be drafted and compiled Last Day of Week 2: Movies are presented in class. Outlines and storyboarded drafts are to be turned in before the video presentations begin.
When it comes to revising and editing, I think many students do not know the differences between the two. Students need to know the difference between revising and editing in order to help refine their peers' writing and their own. Revising makes writing better. Editing makes writing correct. A popular approach in many classrooms is to use the acronyms ARMS (for revising) and CUPS (for editing).
Revising (The big picture): makes your writing sound better and can make it, your work, make more sense. Add words and sentences (be descriptive, capture all ideas). Remove words and sentences (be concise). Move words and sentences (sentence fluency, organization). Substitute words and sentences (word choice, voice).
Editing (Conventions): makes your writing look better Capitalization Usage (Verbs and nouns—does it make sense?) Punctuation Spelling
ARMS and CUPS Stations: For this I will need to set up six stations around the room. I will label each station with one of the following titles and tell them what they are to be looking for at this station. They will be timed at each station and only be looking or focusing on the one idea/task of the station where they are located. By allowing students to concentrate on one writing trait/task at a time, this may help them feel less overwhelmed. This can be used for personal editing and peer editing. Students will move with their assigned laptop, Chromebook, or tablet to work on their paper or assigned peer paper. Their papers will be up on Google Docs or Google Classroom, and they will have their track changes on. I want to see if they are actually making thoughtful changes or simply moving words around or using synonyms of words.
Stations:
Word Choice (Substitute words and sentences)
Ideas and Content
Organization (Move words and sentences)
Sentence Fluency (Add words and sentences, Remove words and sentences, Capitalization, Usage)
Voice (Usage)
Conventions (Punctuation, Spelling)
Questions that I want students to be asking about their papers and their peers’ papers:
Did I include indented paragraphs in my writing?
Did I include a topic sentence and a closing sentence?
Did I use capital letters correctly?
Did I end each sentence with a period, question mark and explanation mark?
Did I check my spelling?
Do my subjects and verbs agree?
Are the verb tenses consistent?
Oral History Project:
Hurricane Stories:
Inspiration for assignment: In accordance with hurricane season, and since the last major hurricane to hit South Carolina was Hurricane Hugo (thankfully) in 1989. I want students to go out and learn about their state’s geographic makeup, vulnerabilities, and strong holds (safe places or places that have withstood years of abuse from Mother Nature) with hurricanes, and then capture personal histories of people with these potentially catastrophic storms.
Assignment: I would like for you to go out and interview people asking about their stories of living through some of the more disastrous moments caused by hurricanes. Many of the people who live in Charleston lived through Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and some other powerful storms. There are so many dangers that can come with hurricanes that you should keep in mind when asking your questions: flooding, storm surges, high winds, being stranded, power outages, no means of transportation OR communication, shortages of food and clean water supplies (contamination). The people who you choose to interview may have numerous stories to share. Stories may vary from:
The prepping for evacuation
Their attempts to ride out the storm
The evacuation and the routes they took
Where did they stay ultimately stay and for how long
What issues did they face away and when they got home?
If they stayed, what events did the hurricane present to them?
Important Note: these interviews can be for any hurricane and from any state. There have been numerous storms that have hit the east coast, the Gulf of Mexico and countless times in the Caribbean.
Hurricane Hugo- Landfall September 1989
Field Work/Interview: Students will conduct a 45-minute to an hour interview that is to be recorded with someone who has lived through a hurricane(s). If it goes over the hour marker, that is fine, but try and ask relevant questions that keep the interview on topic. Next, students are to type up a feature article on their interviewee and include photos of the storms that they end up writing about. Photos from interviewees are encouraged and will add richness to your articles. Feature articles should be 3-4 pages typed, double spaced.
Boats piled up from the storm surge from Hurricane Hugo
Wiki Page:
http://frizellesmagicschoolbus.wikispaces.com/ For this project I wanted to bounce off our oral history project. For this project, students would be researching local history in Charleston, SC. They will be getting acquainted with primary and secondary sources and looking at novels, pamphlets, speeches, newspapers, news reports and ant other reputable sources available to them. The wiki would be used as the gathering site for this final project and like a filing cabinet for whatever they need.
As we talked about students deleting other students work, I will be checking the Wiki regularly but in trying to avoid that and to show students the difference between primary and secondary sources, they will be sending me their more interesting and what they believe to be more important. This way I can see what they want to post and what they SHOULD have posted.
Since the project will take some time, we will work on formatting as we go and thus have chances to discuss formatting of papers along with their Wiki pages. I am hoping that the Wiki teaches organization and accountability along with the difference between primary and secondary (something they will use a great deal in college). The Wiki itself will be used as a gathering place and "filing system" for the entire project. Students are to post their sources, notes, comments, and progress underneath their specific topic-tabs. As suggested in class, there may be a competition between the students and a "Battle of the Pages" to see who has the most well-developed page along. This gives more incentive, aside from their grade, to have a well organized and aesthetically pleasing page. Blog Post:
Seniors English IV—Possible Works to Use: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll Canterbury Tales by Chaucer Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
I hope to be using Google Classroom so I am going to be using Blogger for this exercise. I am not sure which works I would be using yet, so I just put down some pieces that I thought would provide some really rich character blogs. However, I want students to create a character blog, but with a modern twist. I want students to take on the persona of a character from a novel of their choosing. They are to write 10 entries that are to look like a diary or journal entry and are to be in character. The writing is less formal but I still expect proper grammar. The twist is that I want students to write about the issues they identify in the novel from a modern day perspective. This shows to me that they understand the issues and that they can explain to others key concepts found within the novel.
To avoid the entire class choosing the same two books, there are only 5 or 6 students (depending on the overall number) allowed per piece of literature. There will be a signup sheet the first or second week of class, after the students are given a chance to read summaries of the piece they may want. Then, signs ups will begin. Entries are due the day after we finish a piece in class. Students will then present one of their blog posts to the class. I would require the students to write a post that would be two pages in length. They would be graded by chapter and if the student covered and addressed the main theme(s) and were able to "translate" the classic issue into a modern day one. Education Article
“Understanding the Needs of Students from Military Families”
“An approximate four million students have parents who are connected to the military… 80% go to public schools.” These students have just as many needs and recurring concerns as students who are suffering socioeconomically. However, this article points out that like their parents, students of active duty military can be strong assets to their community. They can be leaders, well rounded and able to socialize with different cultures and traditions, and they can show service and devotion to things other than themselves (because of their parent’s sacrifice). This article is promoting the awareness among teachers to this often forgotten group of students along with how to better accommodate emotional and social needs that they might have while they are adjusting to a new school or a parent being gone. The article gives examples along with resources that will help students and teachers create a more supportive environment in the midst of or during deployments or moves.
A few months ago I watched a nightly news report that highlighted Dr. Jill Biden’s work with children in the public school systems who have active duty or deployed military parents. This article ties directly into this newscast. The article promotes the awareness among teachers to this often rarely addressed population of students along with how to better accommodate emotional and social needs that they might have while they are adjusting to a new school or a parent being gone. As an aspiring teacher, who also has numerous family members and friends in service, I was intrigued by this. There are so many students that we as educators have to keep a close watch on: students who have LDs, EDs, students who have known family conflict, and other less than positive concerns. Seldom do we hear about the students who have to move constantly because they are “military brats,” or the ones who are helping out extra at home because mom or dad have been deployed for months.
Virtual Reality technology has been around for quite some time, but only in the past few years has it become available and accessible to the masses via smartphones. As of 2016, Google, Samsung, HTC, Sony, and Facebook backed Oculus have out millions of dollars into their virtual reality and 360 degrees snapshots.
There is something really special about really a story that one can immerse in. Picturing the world around Shakespeare while he is standing in the Globe Theatre, Fitzgerald amidst the wild parties in the Roaring 20s, Twain on a Riverboat navigating the Mississippi, and so many others. Being able to walk through the mansion of the aristocrats in Victorian England, or down the alleyways that were once the playground of Jack the Ripper. Virtual reality can help students dive into a piece of literature and show them what some places look like now and also with certain programs, what it might have looked like years ago. Given, this might seem more playful than educational, but I think it is extremely important for a student to be able to place themselves somewhere in the story. Whether it is the outside looking in or the inside looking out, being able to join in on an assignment in a playful manner seems to be beneficial to student in more ways than one.
To my knowledge, VR has mostly been used for gaming and other things along those lines, but just like other technologies, it is only a matter of time before it makes its way into the classroom and becomes a teaching tool norm. There are some other technologies that are ridiculously expensive for the classroom (especially at the one-to-one level) but for the VR being used on Smartphone and other smaller devices, it has been made more readily available and like other gadgets, affordable. Pictured above you can see the affordable boxes that transform any smartphone into a pair of virtual reality glasses. As stated above, there is something incredible about a piece of literature that completely engulfs you, actually seeing the world and being a part of it could be a true advancement for Literature. Revision Project:
For my revisions, I wanted to show the break down of the tabs or topics that the students would be writing about and posting under. By giving them time periods, I feel as if I have some control over what periods they are writing about but by giving them lager time periods and numerous one, they have ample things to write about.
Within each tab, a student would have his/her own page after they picked or were given a topic to write about. As stated above: The Wiki itself will be used as a gathering place and "filing system" for the entire project. Students are to post their sources, notes, comments, and progress underneath their specific topic-tabs. As suggested in class, there may be a competition between the students and a "Battle of the Pages" to see who has the most well-developed page along. This gives more incentive, aside from their grade, to have a well organized and aesthetically pleasing page. Again, I am hoping that the Wiki teaches organization and accountability along with the difference between primary and secondary, a skill they will need to have honed by the time they get to their undergraduate studies.
About Me: I enjoyed this assignment. It was a quick and easy way to get acquainted with Wiki Spaces and learn the ins and outs of the site. Writing personal statements for our first post was also really helpful to in getting to know fellow students. When I first starting working with the table, it was a bit frustrating but just like with many things, with practice, it got easier. Having to format for the first assignment was extremely beneficial.
Goals: At first I thought that the "Goals" post was going to be for filler on our page, how wrong I was. I was extremely surprised to see how all over the board the class was with their individual stances on technology in the classroom. I was thinking that since most of the student in the classroom were 22 years or older that they would have more of an old school approach to the classroom. For the most part, there was old school consensus but were just as open to see how technology would be
Prezi: I will start off by saying that I truly like the way that Prezis turn out when they are done properly, but working on them can be a chore. They can be a bit tedious and rather labor intensive for a short presentation. On the other hand, they are clear, crisp looking, and more fluid that a PowerPoint could ever be. I am not sure if I would require my students to use Prezi at the moment. I think I would allow them to make a preference or a judgement call, but I do believe that Prezi is slowly phasing out PowerPoint.
Digital Story Telling: This was my least favorite of all the assignments. Working on iMovie can just be a tedious and extremely time consuming. Working on this video took me longer than I expected and I have experience with iMovie. One thing that I do not like is that I cannot edit my video. I would have to go through the iMovie program again and then republish the movie through YouTube. The edit would not be a quick fix, so I had to sacrifice that error in the video. However, I like the assignment itself. Having a student make a movie or even a PowerPoint or Prezi from Shakespearean based movies, but I appreciate the fact that we want students to use multiple forms of media.
Editing Project: This project was beneficial in part that there were numerous exercises to see examples from. After thinking of a general editing and revision project, incorporating technology was not as easy as I thought it would be. Writing, editing, and revising can all be done with pen and paper. Making stations, using iPads, and trying to keep interest in a groan-worthy topic is not easy.
Oral History Project: Oral history is one of my favorite things outside of English Literature. War documentaries and interviews of survivors and veterans are wonderfully intriguing. For my project, I wanted to touch on a topic that was relevant to current events and to the area-- Hurricane Matthew was two days out from making landfall in and around Charleston, so documenting hurricane stories from the Lowcountry seemed perfect. There is so much that can be learned through the spoken word accompanied by facial expressions and body language, this form of passing along information should never be underestimated. With this project, I also feel like with other people'd projects, you saw what topics were important to them or they found overtly interesting.
Wiki Page: Making my own Wiki page was tricky at first. Not knowing what topics I wanted to cover, how I wanted to set up my pages, what I wanted my page to be used for in the classroom. I truly think that using the page as a gathering site for information, sources, and commentary between students is the best way to use the page. I made the mistake of not making the page open for viewing with the first attempt, but there was nothing to the page aside from the home/opening page.
Blog Posts: Blogs may be a personal and outdated form of writing for the classroom setting, but I liked the idea that the student had a space to write that was theirs and no one would be able to go in and edit their work. The controllable space is about the only aspect that I cared for in regards to a blog spot, aside from that, I am not sure that I would use it in my classroom.
Education Article: Researching a topic that interests me, is close to my heart, and will be beneficial to my students at some point really drove me to search for an article of an issue that I knew existed. I have numerous family members and friends who are veterans or still active duty in our military. I have seen first hand how having a parent in the military and gone for long periods of time can genuinely effect a child, both negatively and positively. With the technology that is throughout schools nowadays, there are so many systems that I know would be able to track military students within schools. I felt that this was one of my more productive assignments because it further educated me on one of my student populations and brought to life a possible grant or program to be had within a school that I work for.
Emerging Technologies: Searching for new, untapped technologies to be used in the classroom was a great project. It broadened my outlook on technologies in the classroom because they would not have to be confined to their Chromebooks, the computer labs, or just the basic programs that can be found on the computer or the internet. I loved reading the posts by my classmates a much as I enjoyed writing my own. We live in a time where everything is connected and technology can only continue to heighten education.
Revisions: I chose to revise my Wiki page. I made it visible to the public for starters. I wanted to revise this because I simply made a home page with a welcome message. I wanted to make the tabs that would divide the topics and the students, along with putting one or two ideas into the bigger tabs. I know that I can do more with this page and I plan on it when I get my own class, or making one that looks extremely similar.
Reflections: Collectively, I thought that all of our assignments had benefits to us this semester. Some of the starts to the projects were shaky, meaning that I was not sure where I wanted to start but once I reflected on what I thought would be fun as a student and combined it with what I needed to do as a teacher, subject matters became easier to develop. I know that my posts could always use more polishing and that I would do better with discussing them in person than I would in the typed up versions on this page. I have no doubts that in my classroom, I will do a better job verbally explaining and talking out assignments and readings with students that I ever could typing them out. This class taught me that I am not as old at heat as i thought when it comes to teaching. I am open and receptive to many of the technologies that can and will be found in the classroom now and in the near future.
Thanks for a wonderful and entertaining semester everyone! ...Fin...
A Bit About Me...
It was at The College and through the amazing guidance of two of my English professors that I discovered my love affair with the classroom. I have always enjoyed the discussions and dynamics of a classroom but never really explored it as a career. My "super" senior year of college, I decided I would go to graduate school to become a teacher. People joke and ask if I will ever get out of school, but I am so excited to get into my own classroom and cannot wait to student teach in Fall 2017.
(Pictured to the left are my wee nephew Jack and I; he's the man.)
I was nominated to be on the Public Education Board this year for the Zucker Family School of Education as the representative for Graduate students. I am extremely excited to see how the delegation and meetings of higher education are conducted.
When I am not working in The Graduate College, I dog-sit regularly and have been a nanny for three different families when needed for five years (pictured to the right is my dog, Louie).
Goals for English 564:
So, I know that as a "millennial" (I loath that I am considered one), I should be more computer savvy than I really am. I am not afraid to say that I am mildly computer illiterate. There are so many different programs and interfaces out there that I am a bit intimidated by them all. When it comes to technologies, I do better with the hands-on approach to learning. Through this course, I am hoping to become more comfortable with the programs that I will encounter in the classroom and even possibly be introduced to some that I have never heard of to make myself as proficient as possible. I have thought myself to repel technology, so I think this class will be interesting, for sure.
The technology that I use regularly is Google Drive. I use it for so much. I save everything to it. Papers, pictures, charts, and anything else that I can think of. It has been the most user-friendly interface that I have encountered. I know I will never be a computer programmer, I am pretty sure it is too late to emerge as a prodigy of some kind, (I will make peace with this and move on,) but I would like to hone any skill that will make English and American Literature more exciting.
Pride and Prejudice Prezi
Jane Austen was well known for her criticism towards marriage in her society. Given Austen's main focus was on the aristocrat along with the middle class, she omitted those within the lower working class—for the purpose of this assignment, and following the characters' stories, so will we. Austen uses well developed banter and wit to address and bring to the forefront some of the most socially confining issues of a female’s life: love, reputation and marriage. Does love really matter? How can a woman really get the trifecta? This purpose of this lesson is to help students develop and hone critical and analytical reading skills along with engaging them with the literary criticism on Austen's work (focusing on the themes of love and marriage in her society).
Austen heavily disagreed with how her era confined women to their husbands and to their houses. She published her works anonymously for many reasons but one was because writing was not considered to a favorable feminine characteristic, especially one for marriage. For this assignment, we will look at how women are valued along with how their worth is measured in Jane Austen’s _Pride and Prejudice_ to Seth Grahame-Smith’s adaptation _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies._
Mr. Charles Bingley
Mr. George Wickham
Mr. Collins (clergyman)
Miss Jane Bennet
Miss Lydia Bennet
Miss Bingley
Miss Charlotte Lucas
Miss Georgiana Dracy
Miss Mary Bennet
Miss Catherine Bennet
Pride and Prejudice Prezi
Digital Story Telling
When thinking of this project, I wanted to do something that may spark interest in further Shakespearean or classic pieces of literature. There are numerous movies that are based off classic pieces of literature, and often the modern movie may make the older story more relatable to today's students.
To start class and this project, I will ask my students “How many movies do they know of that are based on of William Shakespeare’s plays? After this bell-ringer, hopefully they will have listed some of the movies that I had on my list, filling in the ones that were not named but ones that I want them to know. I would then pass out a sheet that has summaries for students to reference while they brainstorm and storyboard their videos. The students are to choose one of the movies listed to look deeper into the imagery displayed on the screen, find similarities in the imagery from the text, and identify any major images/themes that may have been overlooked by students in their projects.
*Please pay close attention to literary devices used in the text that would be VISUALLY displayed not VERBALLY.
*Videos are to be 3-5 minutes long Students are to use iMovie, Animoto, WeMovie, or Lego Movie Maker.
*Movies will then be posted to the class Wiki.
Week 1: Class time will be used to brainstorm images, themes, and overall thoughts or concerns students have for the project. They will start to storyboard their movies
Week 2: Thoughtful and well developed storyboard and organized outlines are to be drafted and compiled
Last Day of Week 2: Movies are presented in class. Outlines and storyboarded drafts are to be turned in before the video presentations begin.
Below is a brief example I created:
Editing Activity:
When it comes to revising and editing, I think many students do not know the differences between the two. Students need to know the difference between revising and editing in order to help refine their peers' writing and their own. Revising makes writing better. Editing makes writing correct. A popular approach in many classrooms is to use the acronyms ARMS (for revising) and CUPS (for editing).
Revising (The big picture): makes your writing sound better and can make it, your work, make more sense.
Add words and sentences (be descriptive, capture all ideas).
Remove words and sentences (be concise).
Move words and sentences (sentence fluency, organization).
Substitute words and sentences (word choice, voice).
Editing (Conventions): makes your writing look better
Capitalization
Usage (Verbs and nouns—does it make sense?)
Punctuation
Spelling
ARMS and CUPS Stations: For this I will need to set up six stations around the room. I will label each station with one of the following titles and tell them what they are to be looking for at this station. They will be timed at each station and only be looking or focusing on the one idea/task of the station where they are located. By allowing students to concentrate on one writing trait/task at a time, this may help them feel less overwhelmed. This can be used for personal editing and peer editing. Students will move with their assigned laptop, Chromebook, or tablet to work on their paper or assigned peer paper. Their papers will be up on Google Docs or Google Classroom, and they will have their track changes on. I want to see if they are actually making thoughtful changes or simply moving words around or using synonyms of words.
Stations:
Questions that I want students to be asking about their papers and their peers’ papers:
Oral History Project:
Inspiration for assignment: In accordance with hurricane season, and since the last major hurricane to hit South Carolina was Hurricane Hugo (thankfully) in 1989. I want students to go out and learn about their state’s geographic makeup, vulnerabilities, and strong holds (safe places or places that have withstood years of abuse from Mother Nature) with hurricanes, and then capture personal histories of people with these potentially catastrophic storms.
Assignment: I would like for you to go out and interview people asking about their stories of living through some of the more disastrous moments caused by hurricanes. Many of the people who live in Charleston lived through Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and some other powerful storms. There are so many dangers that can come with hurricanes that you should keep in mind when asking your questions: flooding, storm surges, high winds, being stranded, power outages, no means of transportation OR communication, shortages of food and clean water supplies (contamination). The people who you choose to interview may have numerous stories to share. Stories may vary from:
Important Note: these interviews can be for any hurricane and from any state. There have been numerous storms that have hit the east coast, the Gulf of Mexico and countless times in the Caribbean.
Hurricane Hugo- Landfall September 1989
Boats piled up from the storm surge from Hurricane Hugo
Wiki Page:
http://frizellesmagicschoolbus.wikispaces.com/
For this project I wanted to bounce off our oral history project. For this project, students would be researching local history in Charleston, SC. They will be getting acquainted with primary and secondary sources and looking at novels, pamphlets, speeches, newspapers, news reports and ant other reputable sources available to them. The wiki would be used as the gathering site for this final project and like a filing cabinet for whatever they need.
As we talked about students deleting other students work, I will be checking the Wiki regularly but in trying to avoid that and to show students the difference between primary and secondary sources, they will be sending me their more interesting and what they believe to be more important. This way I can see what they want to post and what they SHOULD have posted.
Since the project will take some time, we will work on formatting as we go and thus have chances to discuss formatting of papers along with their Wiki pages. I am hoping that the Wiki teaches organization and accountability along with the difference between primary and secondary (something they will use a great deal in college). The Wiki itself will be used as a gathering place and "filing system" for the entire project. Students are to post their sources, notes, comments, and progress underneath their specific topic-tabs. As suggested in class, there may be a competition between the students and a "Battle of the Pages" to see who has the most well-developed page along. This gives more incentive, aside from their grade, to have a well organized and aesthetically pleasing page.
Blog Post:
Seniors English IV—Possible Works to Use:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
I hope to be using Google Classroom so I am going to be using Blogger for this exercise. I am not sure which works I would be using yet, so I just put down some pieces that I thought would provide some really rich character blogs. However, I want students to create a character blog, but with a modern twist. I want students to take on the persona of a character from a novel of their choosing. They are to write 10 entries that are to look like a diary or journal entry and are to be in character. The writing is less formal but I still expect proper grammar. The twist is that I want students to write about the issues they identify in the novel from a modern day perspective. This shows to me that they understand the issues and that they can explain to others key concepts found within the novel.
To avoid the entire class choosing the same two books, there are only 5 or 6 students (depending on the overall number) allowed per piece of literature. There will be a signup sheet the first or second week of class, after the students are given a chance to read summaries of the piece they may want. Then, signs ups will begin. Entries are due the day after we finish a piece in class. Students will then present one of their blog posts to the class. I would require the students to write a post that would be two pages in length. They would be graded by chapter and if the student covered and addressed the main theme(s) and were able to "translate" the classic issue into a modern day one.
Education Article
“Understanding the Needs of Students from Military Families”
“An approximate four million students have parents who are connected to the military… 80% go to public schools.” These students have just as many needs and recurring concerns as students who are suffering socioeconomically. However, this article points out that like their parents, students of active duty military can be strong assets to their community. They can be leaders, well rounded and able to socialize with different cultures and traditions, and they can show service and devotion to things other than themselves (because of their parent’s sacrifice). This article is promoting the awareness among teachers to this often forgotten group of students along with how to better accommodate emotional and social needs that they might have while they are adjusting to a new school or a parent being gone. The article gives examples along with resources that will help students and teachers create a more supportive environment in the midst of or during deployments or moves.
A few months ago I watched a nightly news report that highlighted Dr. Jill Biden’s work with children in the public school systems who have active duty or deployed military parents. This article ties directly into this newscast. The article promotes the awareness among teachers to this often rarely addressed population of students along with how to better accommodate emotional and social needs that they might have while they are adjusting to a new school or a parent being gone. As an aspiring teacher, who also has numerous family members and friends in service, I was intrigued by this. There are so many students that we as educators have to keep a close watch on: students who have LDs, EDs, students who have known family conflict, and other less than positive concerns. Seldom do we hear about the students who have to move constantly because they are “military brats,” or the ones who are helping out extra at home because mom or dad have been deployed for months.
Article: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/knowing-military-connected-students-your-school-0-maurice-elias
Emerging Technologies:
Virtual Reality technology has been around for quite some time, but only in the past few years has it become available and accessible to the masses via smartphones. As of 2016, Google, Samsung, HTC, Sony, and Facebook backed Oculus have out millions of dollars into their virtual reality and 360 degrees snapshots.
There is something really special about really a story that one can immerse in. Picturing the world around Shakespeare while he is standing in the Globe Theatre, Fitzgerald amidst the wild parties in the Roaring 20s, Twain on a Riverboat navigating the Mississippi, and so many others. Being able to walk through the mansion of the aristocrats in Victorian England, or down the alleyways that were once the playground of Jack the Ripper. Virtual reality can help students dive into a piece of literature and show them what some places look like now and also with certain programs, what it might have looked like years ago. Given, this might seem more playful than educational, but I think it is extremely important for a student to be able to place themselves somewhere in the story. Whether it is the outside looking in or the inside looking out, being able to join in on an assignment in a playful manner seems to be beneficial to student in more ways than one.
To my knowledge, VR has mostly been used for gaming and other things along those lines, but just like other technologies, it is only a matter of time before it makes its way into the classroom and becomes a teaching tool norm. There are some other technologies that are ridiculously expensive for the classroom (especially at the one-to-one level) but for the VR being used on Smartphone and other smaller devices, it has been made more readily available and like other gadgets, affordable. Pictured above you can see the affordable boxes that transform any smartphone into a pair of virtual reality glasses. As stated above, there is something incredible about a piece of literature that completely engulfs you, actually seeing the world and being a part of it could be a true advancement for Literature.
Revision Project:
For my revisions, I wanted to show the break down of the tabs or topics that the students would be writing about and posting under. By giving them time periods, I feel as if I have some control over what periods they are writing about but by giving them lager time periods and numerous one, they have ample things to write about.
Within each tab, a student would have his/her own page after they picked or were given a topic to write about. As stated above: The Wiki itself will be used as a gathering place and "filing system" for the entire project. Students are to post their sources, notes, comments, and progress underneath their specific topic-tabs. As suggested in class, there may be a competition between the students and a "Battle of the Pages" to see who has the most well-developed page along. This gives more incentive, aside from their grade, to have a well organized and aesthetically pleasing page. Again, I am hoping that the Wiki teaches organization and accountability along with the difference between primary and secondary, a skill they will need to have honed by the time they get to their undergraduate studies.
http://frizellesmagicschoolbus.wikispaces.com/
Reflections:
About Me:
I enjoyed this assignment. It was a quick and easy way to get acquainted with Wiki Spaces and learn the ins and outs of the site. Writing personal statements for our first post was also really helpful to in getting to know fellow students. When I first starting working with the table, it was a bit frustrating but just like with many things, with practice, it got easier. Having to format for the first assignment was extremely beneficial.
Goals:
At first I thought that the "Goals" post was going to be for filler on our page, how wrong I was. I was extremely surprised to see how all over the board the class was with their individual stances on technology in the classroom. I was thinking that since most of the student in the classroom were 22 years or older that they would have more of an old school approach to the classroom. For the most part, there was old school consensus but were just as open to see how technology would be
Prezi:
I will start off by saying that I truly like the way that Prezis turn out when they are done properly, but working on them can be a chore. They can be a bit tedious and rather labor intensive for a short presentation. On the other hand, they are clear, crisp looking, and more fluid that a PowerPoint could ever be. I am not sure if I would require my students to use Prezi at the moment. I think I would allow them to make a preference or a judgement call, but I do believe that Prezi is slowly phasing out PowerPoint.
Digital Story Telling:
This was my least favorite of all the assignments. Working on iMovie can just be a tedious and extremely time consuming. Working on this video took me longer than I expected and I have experience with iMovie. One thing that I do not like is that I cannot edit my video. I would have to go through the iMovie program again and then republish the movie through YouTube. The edit would not be a quick fix, so I had to sacrifice that error in the video. However, I like the assignment itself. Having a student make a movie or even a PowerPoint or Prezi from Shakespearean based movies, but I appreciate the fact that we want students to use multiple forms of media.
Editing Project:
This project was beneficial in part that there were numerous exercises to see examples from. After thinking of a general editing and revision project, incorporating technology was not as easy as I thought it would be. Writing, editing, and revising can all be done with pen and paper. Making stations, using iPads, and trying to keep interest in a groan-worthy topic is not easy.
Oral History Project:
Oral history is one of my favorite things outside of English Literature. War documentaries and interviews of survivors and veterans are wonderfully intriguing. For my project, I wanted to touch on a topic that was relevant to current events and to the area-- Hurricane Matthew was two days out from making landfall in and around Charleston, so documenting hurricane stories from the Lowcountry seemed perfect. There is so much that can be learned through the spoken word accompanied by facial expressions and body language, this form of passing along information should never be underestimated. With this project, I also feel like with other people'd projects, you saw what topics were important to them or they found overtly interesting.
Wiki Page:
Making my own Wiki page was tricky at first. Not knowing what topics I wanted to cover, how I wanted to set up my pages, what I wanted my page to be used for in the classroom. I truly think that using the page as a gathering site for information, sources, and commentary between students is the best way to use the page. I made the mistake of not making the page open for viewing with the first attempt, but there was nothing to the page aside from the home/opening page.
Blog Posts:
Blogs may be a personal and outdated form of writing for the classroom setting, but I liked the idea that the student had a space to write that was theirs and no one would be able to go in and edit their work. The controllable space is about the only aspect that I cared for in regards to a blog spot, aside from that, I am not sure that I would use it in my classroom.
Education Article:
Researching a topic that interests me, is close to my heart, and will be beneficial to my students at some point really drove me to search for an article of an issue that I knew existed. I have numerous family members and friends who are veterans or still active duty in our military. I have seen first hand how having a parent in the military and gone for long periods of time can genuinely effect a child, both negatively and positively. With the technology that is throughout schools nowadays, there are so many systems that I know would be able to track military students within schools. I felt that this was one of my more productive assignments because it further educated me on one of my student populations and brought to life a possible grant or program to be had within a school that I work for.
Emerging Technologies:
Searching for new, untapped technologies to be used in the classroom was a great project. It broadened my outlook on technologies in the classroom because they would not have to be confined to their Chromebooks, the computer labs, or just the basic programs that can be found on the computer or the internet. I loved reading the posts by my classmates a much as I enjoyed writing my own. We live in a time where everything is connected and technology can only continue to heighten education.
Revisions:
I chose to revise my Wiki page. I made it visible to the public for starters. I wanted to revise this because I simply made a home page with a welcome message. I wanted to make the tabs that would divide the topics and the students, along with putting one or two ideas into the bigger tabs. I know that I can do more with this page and I plan on it when I get my own class, or making one that looks extremely similar.
Reflections:
Collectively, I thought that all of our assignments had benefits to us this semester. Some of the starts to the projects were shaky, meaning that I was not sure where I wanted to start but once I reflected on what I thought would be fun as a student and combined it with what I needed to do as a teacher, subject matters became easier to develop. I know that my posts could always use more polishing and that I would do better with discussing them in person than I would in the typed up versions on this page. I have no doubts that in my classroom, I will do a better job verbally explaining and talking out assignments and readings with students that I ever could typing them out. This class taught me that I am not as old at heat as i thought when it comes to teaching. I am open and receptive to many of the technologies that can and will be found in the classroom now and in the near future.
Thanks for a wonderful and entertaining semester everyone!
...Fin...